Systems Management

Archive for the ‘Database Systems’ Category

Database systems today have a laundry list of features that are built into the system. You probably ask yourself, “Do I really need all of these features for my business?” The answer varies, depending on your true business needs.

The list below breaks down the key features and functionalities found in most database/CRM systems so you can better understand whether they are useful for your company or not. Even if you find some are not useful to your company right now, think about whether they might become useful in the next 2-5 years. A database system is not a short-term purchase, but rather one that should cover a minimum of 3-5 years.

Account/Contact Management

How you maintain your contact information for your business, including details on each company and person at each company (birthdate, industry, mailings to receive, etc.)

Opportunity/Sales Management

Track proposals sent, amount of potential business open by you/your sales team, who your competition is, where your business is being referred from.

Customer Service/Case Management

If you have any products or services that require customer service or call center needs, you can track which client or prospect the issue is for, what the specific issue is, who it is assigned to, how long it was open for, and how it was resolved.

Marketing/Campaign Management

If your business is involved in any marketing activities, you can track who each mailing went to, what items are part of a specific marketing campaign, who is attending an event, etc. It allows you to track the profitability of each campaign and see what marketing efforts are working for your company.

Activity and Calendar Management

Fairly self-explanatory – allows sharing of calendars amongst team members, seeing all upcoming calls, meetings, to-dos, etc. for each contact in your system, allowing a full picture of all interactions with your customers and prospects.

Notes and History Tracking

View all sent items (emails, mailings, etc.), completed calls, meetings, to-dos, etc to a contact. See any notes entered on that contact to see a full picture of all past interactions with your customers and prospects.

Email Management

Allows viewing, sending, and receiving emails within the database system (and not relying on an outside program like Outlook, Lotus Notes). Can be used in conjunction with other email programs. Allows you to attach specific emails from contacts in the database right to the contact record.

Project Management

Assign tasks, milestones, due dates to complete a client project. Similar to using Microsoft Project or another project management tool, but it integrates the project data with the contact, account, and/or opportunity data. You can assign appropriate internal resources to each task or project and track actual work time, including billable and non-billable time. Some systems also include an expense component to their project management tool.

Dashboards/Business Intelligence

A quick glance at your business’ metrics — # of open opportunities per stage of the selling cycle; dollars of business still open; # of new clients per month, etc. The list is endless, as the Dashboard views are very customizable.

Customized Reports

Most database systems come with various “out-of-the-box” reports. However, these reports were designed for the masses, and not with your business in mind. This allows you to modify existing reports to fit your needs or create new reports that provide you the appropriate business insight you need.

Workflow/Process Automation

Want the system to email you when an opportunity has been open for too long? Or remind you to call a new prospect after 3 days? These are just some examples of what workflow automation can do for you. The list is endless and enormously helpful to the day-to-day activities of every user of the system.

Mobile/Remote Tools

Do you have a salesforce that is out of the office most of the time? Do many of your employees telecommute? Do you have several handheld device users (Blackberry, Treo, etc.)? If so, a mobile or remote tool may be very helpful to you. This allows a user to gain access to critical database information right from their handheld device. It could also provide a portion of the database for them to take with them on their laptop. When the employee connects back to the company system, the data they added/changed will automatically be updated in the main database everyone shares in the office.

With more sophisticated systems, there may be even more features than listed above. This is a list of the typical ones found in most database systems, and the ones utilized most frequently in businesses.

If you are looking into purchasing a database system in the near future, or if you already have a system, but are not sure if it is the right fit for you, contact DB Pros for an assessment of your business’ needs so we can help you find the right system for your company.

Managing data effectively is essential for every business, large or small. From tracking the success of your marketing efforts to keeping up with important personnel and training information, keeping accurate business records and being able to quickly generate accurate reports are necessary for operations and managerial decision making.

Depending on the industry you are in and the type of reporting requirements your business has, an off-the-shelf data management system designed specifically for your type of business might be sufficient for your needs. However, if you are in a niche business, you probably need a custom database to satisfy all of your record keeping and reporting requirements.

All organizations maintain and use data for day-to-day business operations. A database management system is the software that is used to store data, maintain those data, and provide easy access to stored data. It allows organizations to store data in a central location using a standard format.

Two Basic Categories

Besides looking at the model used to store the data, Database Management Systems can be divided into two basic categories: personal databases and client/server databases. Many of the same concepts apply to both DBMS categories. The differences lie largely in the amount of data that can be stored, the number of concurrent users supported, networking capabilities, and the level of data security provided.

Personal database management systems like Microsoft Access work best in single-user environments. The ideal environment is one user updating and reporting on the data from one PC. Although personal database management systems can be networked and shared, the general rule-of-thumb is that there should be no more than ten concurrent users. If security, network traffic, or the ability to recover from system failures is important, a client/server DBMS would be a better choice.

Client/Server Database Management Systems

Client/server DBMS’s are designed to support multiple users in a networked environment. Powerful servers store and process large quantities of organizational data, while client PCs can request data from the server and then query, update, and report on it locally. A typical client/server application has a front end like Microsoft Access that runs on the local client workstation and a back end like Microsoft SQL Server that runs on the server. In these implementations, the front end provides the local user interface on a PC, while the back end has the power to store and process data from multiple users on a network server.

How it Works

For instance, the client (you at your PC) would request a listing of August computer sales. The server database holds the information for all organizational sales and must run a query to retrieve August computer sales, which it then passes to the requesting client. You now have a local copy of August computer sales that you can use your local client software to manipulate.

Depending on the application, you might make changes to the local data and then the client could send updates to the servers that are then applied to the organizational database.

Client/ server applications are cost effective and scalable. They can also take advantage of common PC software like Microsoft Access on the client, making them easy for users to learn and use.

Data are a valuable organizational resource. Good data and information retrieval technology can improve the organization’s ability to compete in an industry, deliver products to consumers, and evaluate opportunities. The loss or contamination of an organization’s data can contribute to failure.

A good management system provides users with facilities to maintain stored data, tools to create screens used to view and update data, report generation capabilities, query services to obtain fast answers to questions about the data, and common interfaces to share data. On the down side, shared data are never as secure as centralized data stored on a mainframe.